research * the future * culture

I’m slowly figuring out the Tor.com backend. It may sound strange, but at this point I think I’ve worked with just about every major blogging platform there is at one time or another. (I should put that on a CV somewhere, now that I think of it.) Even so, I find that I write most of my posts (for everyone, not just Tor) in HTML. It’s just easier, once you know the tags. Not that I can do anything fancy, but for my purposes it suits.

One thing that’s really surprised me about my posting at Tor is the enthusiasm of the response. When I started, I was a little worried that no one would care. But no — people are commenting, and hauling out their DVD’s, and watching right along with me. Then again, this is Cowboy Bebop, a show everyone loves. (I know there are people out there who don’t get it — those people are psychopaths incapable of empathy.) The real test might come when I write about a show that doesn’t have such a firmly-established audience. Luckily, I have over twenty episodes between then and now to hone my skills.

Speaking of which, I’m really enjoying how re-watching each episode forces me to dissect the plot. I noticed it especially this time, but I hope it continues as a trend. One of the things my own stories get criticized for sometimes is their lack of apparent logic. The plot is clear to me, but not to other people. So hopefully this will prove a useful exercise for me in understanding the gestures of plot and how to clarify the links between events.

I’ve been fighting a cold all week, so there isn’t much more to say. I feel like I’ve spent the latter half of the week wrapped up in a fog, and I spent yesterday afternoon in class coughing and sneezing. I fell asleep last night at 9:30. 9:30. That didn’t even happen when I was a child. Clearly, there’s something wrong. I think it’s in everyone’s best interest if I just go back to bed and try to read until I can go to sleep.

Madeline Ashby…

...is a science fiction writer, strategic foresight consultant, and immigrant living in Toronto. She writes a column for the Ottawa Citizen. She is represented by Anne McDermid & Associates, and IAM Sports & Entertainment. You can buy her novels here. Her short fiction has appeared in Nature, FLURB, Tesseracts, Imaginarium, and Escape Pod. Her other essays and criticism have appeared at BoingBoing, io9, WorldChanging, Creators Project, Arcfinity, and Tor.com.